章 7: Chapter 6: A Poor Family
Yang Cuihua and Xu Niannian were talking in the main room without bothering to keep their voices down.
Cuihua wasn't afraid of her son overhearing anyway.
Thus, their conversation about attitudes towards sons and daughters was heard by Xu Zhicheng, who was outside chopping wood, and by Xu Zhiqiang, who was busy in the kitchen.
Xu Duoyu also heard it, but he didn't yet understand what it meant.
Xu Zhiqiang was cooking with a poker face, letting Duoyu play on the side without actually having him help, and his eyes betrayed no emotion.
The young boy had already learned to endure and to keep his joy and anger hidden.
However, Niannian's fib about dreaming was whispered so softly that no one but Yang Cuihua heard it.
In a while, Xu Zhiqiang had finished cooking and brought out the food.
The so-called meals were nothing but the coarsest of coarse grains.
There was porridge made from rice bran, with a few green vegetables boiled in it, and a dish of dark, salty pickles.
Rice bran, even in the poorest rural areas of later times, wasn't eaten by anyone—it was pig feed.
But at the Xu Family home, it was the staple diet.
With only Yang Cuihua and Xu Zhiqiang as the labor force with Dawei being a cripple who couldn't work and always in pain, and with five mouths to feed in the household,
the grain they could get for the work points of two people was never enough to feed the whole family.
So every year when the grain was distributed, Yang Cuihua would trade the coarse grains like sorghum and corn for even coarser rice bran.
Because few people ate rice bran, they could exchange one jin of sorghum or corn for five or six jin of rice bran.
Yet, even though the family was so poor, Yang Cuihua and Xu Dawei still ensured that Xu Niannian could eat better grain at every meal.
For instance, now, while the entire family ate porridge made from rice bran, only Niannian had a bowl of white rice porridge in front of her.
White rice was a scarce fine grain in that era, with ordinary rural families getting only 15 to 20 jin a year.
But because it was so scarce, poorer families couldn't bear to eat it and would exchange it for coarser grains like sorghum and corn.
So the bowl of extremely thin white rice porridge in front of Niannian was truly enviable.
Niannian really couldn't stomach rice bran. For someone who was used to eating white rice, switching to the dirt-colored rice bran would certainly be unbearable.
Yet, seeing that everyone in the family was eating rice bran except for her, she found it difficult to swallow her white rice porridge.
She didn't have much of an emotional attachment to this family, as she had only been reborn, and these people were not her true relatives in any meaningful sense.
But she couldn't bear to completely neglect them.
And she desired familial love more than anyone else, so since the opportunity was right in front of her, how could she willingly give it up?
She was determined to treat this family well.
To make them her true relatives.
"Cuihua, why aren't you eating? Do you not have an appetite?" Yang Cuihua noticed Xu Niannian hadn't started eating and wondered if she was feeling unwell.
"Eat, I'll eat right away," Xu Niannian hastily replied.
Xu Duoyu sat to her left, with Xu Zhiqiang at the same side of the table, staring longingly at the white rice porridge in her bowl.
Niannian felt soft-hearted at his innocent gaze.
"Duoyu, do you want some of your sister's porridge?"
As soon as Niannian asked, Yang Cuihua glared fiercely at Xu Duoyu, "What nonsense! You little brat, coveting your sister's food again?"
"Mom!" Niannian shouted, raising her voice, "It's because I can't eat that much."
Receiving her daughter's look, Yang Cuihua swallowed her annoyance at her youngest son and didn't say another word.
Actually, Yang Cuihua was somewhat frightened by her daughter's dream, and for her daughter's safety, she decided to endure for the time being.
Xu Duoyu's heart trembled when Yang Cuihua shouted at her; she wrapped her small hands around Xu Zhiqiang's waist, her little mouth pouting as if she was about to cry but didn't.
Xu Zhiqiang put down his chopsticks and soothed her, "Duoyu, be good."
Xu Dawei also disapproved of Xu Niannian sharing the white rice porridge with her son. There was hardly enough fine grain to go around, and Niannian herself didn't have enough to eat.
However, he always followed his wife's opinion. Seeing that his wife didn't continue to stop their daughter, he said nothing more.
Xu Niannian picked up Xu Duoyu's bowl, poured the bran porridge back into the pot—he hadn't even eaten it yet—and then divided half of the porridge from her own bowl for him.
Xu Zhiqiang gave Xu Niannian a meaningful look, which she pretended not to see.
Let them suspect if they wanted to. She had said all she needed to say. Continuing to act as arrogantly and overbearingly as her predecessor did, bullying younger children, was out of the question.
With the white rice porridge, Xu Duoyu gulped it down eagerly, as if he couldn't swallow fast enough, devouring it ravenously.
It filled Xu Niannian with a deep sense of sadness.
Yang Cuihua could only helplessly purse her lips, reluctant to part with even a bit of fine grain.
Seeing how happily Xu Duoyu ate made Xu Niannian smile, and the salty pickles in her dish didn't seem so hard to swallow anymore.
She swore she would change her family's living conditions.
They were truly too impoverish.
She couldn't control other people, but since she was reborn into this family, she couldn't let her own family live such a harsh life.
After dinner, the family didn't take long to retire to their rooms to sleep. In this era, there wasn't much entertainment, and everyone went to bed early.
It was also at this time that Xu Niannian discovered that her room was the largest in the house.
Yang Cuihua and Xu Dawei's room wasn't as spacious as hers.
Not to mention the room of Xu Zhiqiang and his brothers.
Moreover, the three brothers all stayed in one room, sharing only one bed.
Just as Xu Niannian sat down on her bed, there came a knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
Xu Niannian looked at the door with suspicion. Who would come to find her at this time? Could it be Yang Cuihua?
No sooner had this thought crossed her mind than she heard Xu Zhiqiang's cool voice from outside, "It's me!"
Xu Zhiqiang? What did he want with her? As far as she could recall, this younger brother never sought her out unless it was necessary.
But what could possibly be the matter at this time?
After entering the room, Xu Niannian bolted the door behind her. Now she had to get out of bed to open it.
Upon opening the door, she saw Xu Zhiqiang enter expressionlessly, carrying a basin of water.
"Sister, time to wash your feet."
When Xu Niannian saw Xu Zhiqiang come in with the foot basin, she remembered.
The original occupant of her body had never washed her feet outside, always having Xu Zhiqiang bring the basin into her room for her, showing extreme laziness.
And because she disliked this younger brother, the original often did insulting things to Xu Zhiqiang while washing her feet.
Like rubbing her feet on his face, splashing water on him, or wiping her feet on his body, using his clothes as if they were a foot towel.
As Xu Niannian was pondering this, her slippers were already being removed by Xu Zhiqiang, who was about to place her feet in the basin.
Xu Niannian suddenly jerked away and pushed Xu Zhiqiang back, "No need, I can do it myself."
Xu Zhiqiang, caught off guard by her push, fell and ended up sitting on the ground...
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